Tag: Garlic training logs

Greetings from NYC! I’m here for a few days to see my new niece, who was born last week. Conveniently, my USATF Level 1 Coaching course, which took place on Long Island, was scheduled for this weekend, so I combined taking the course with a visit to my sister and her family to do two of my favorite things: think about running and hang out with a new cutie-pie. Fun times!

Lots of easy running this week as I recovered from my chest wall injury, which was okay because I was grateful to be able to run at all! On Monday I saw my chiropractor who did a thorough exam and determined nothing was broken. He did some ART on my neck, back and shoulder because things had tightened up from the pain of breathing, and this was a huge help. Since then there’s been improvement every day; I am still taking ibuprofen prior to running because deep inspiration remains a little tough, but I’m optimistic I’ll be able to get in a more normal week of training this coming week as things feel better and better. For this past week, here is what I did:

This week was a rest week, planned to coincide with our family vacation to San Diego, CA. We had a great time, but unfortunately about 2 minutes into my run on the first day we were there I wiped out on asphalt after tripping over a speed bump (I guess I was too busy looking around at the beautiful scenery to notice the bump in the road!) and sustained trauma to my right chest, elbow and knee. Everything felt bruised and banged up for a couple of days, but while the elbow and knee have been feeling gradually better, the chest is still really bothering me and by today I was having significant pain with deep breathing, reaching for anything with my right arm, and doing anything involving rotational movement. And while I have been able to run all week, today I had to cut things short and admit I may need to take a little time to rest and should probably get checked out, which is on the to do list for this week. So frustrating to suffer an injury that has absolutely nothing to do with training and everything to do with being a klutz!

Monday: Travel day to San Diego. An easy swim when we got to the resort.

Tuesday: Easy run. Warm-up: 10 minutes easy, with annoying fall 2 minutes in. 2*buttkicks, heel kicks. Workout: 20 min easy. Had strength circuit planned but was a little too banged up to do it so just stretched as a cool-down.

This week I continued to struggle with speed endurance and did not have a good quality workout, which was a fartlek run on Wednesday. In part it was because of tough conditions – I trained a client in the early morning that day and then had kid and dog stuff to do so I didn’t get started until 11 a.m., when the sun was reaching its height and it was 86 degrees outside. However, since I am still running by exertion level only and not specific paces I thought I would be ok. I was not and I couldn’t execute the workout the way I had planned. Instead of running it as a continuous fartlek it turned into moderate effort intervals with short walk breaks between to catch my breath and get myself together – not what I was hoping for. After thinking things over and realizing I might need some additional cardiovascular stimulus to help with my aerobic development, I decided to add some moderate-effort swim workouts a couple times a week in an attempt to improve my ability to handle faster running. I did the first of these on Thursday, and I’m optimistic these will help.

On the flip side, my long run on Sunday (75 minutes, around 9 miles, over rolling hills) went really well. I felt very strong throughout, not overly fatigued by the end in spite of again running in very warm temperatures, and my body felt good and competent to handle this distance. AND, I’m killing it in the gym: this week, single-legged deadlifts holding 50 lbs (two 25 lb kettle bells)! Woo hoo!

I am writing tonight while a million thoughts are racing around in my mind. I spent the weekend completing the Postural Respiration course, given by the Postural Restoration Institute (PRI). For those who don’t know, PRI is about acknowledging the asymmetries of the human body due to the distribution of our internal organs and the different specializations of the right and left sides of our brains. The goal is to prevent these from leading to movement dysfunction by counterbalancing them with targeted breathing and repositioning techniques and exercise programs. The concepts are complex, and challenge the tenets of the more traditional kinesiology approach that gets taught in school. Much of what I learned was extremely new to me, and though it all made wonderful intellectual sense, I am still trying to process everything and figure out how I will apply it to my own approach.

In regard to my training, I had a strong week of running and strength work, with a confidence-boosting fartlek run on Tuesday that went much better than the one I attempted last week. I did well with my long run on Friday, too, so all in all a good week.

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Functional Movement Summit 2014 in Providence, RI. Twelve hundred strength coaches, personal trainers, athletic trainers and other sports performance professionals gathered at the Rhode Island Convention Center to hear the top coaches and trainers of professional sports teams present on a variety of topics, from speed development to functional core training to boot camps to pelvic floor dysfunction….you name it. It was a great experience – information overload, for sure, but I left with a ton of new material and ideas for my own training and for training my Moms Run Strong clients.

My training this week went well, and I even got to do some neat and very challenging workouts at the Summit, which also had a number of hands-on sessions for the attendees. Here’s how things went:

This week had some ups and downs. Similarly to last week, I had some left foot and ankle soreness at the beginning of the week, which I am starting to think is actually due to the Friday long runs even though it is temporally removed by 48-72 hours. I got through it, again by being conservative and with some ridiculously effective manual therapy from my strength coach. But it kind of messed up the schedule I’d planned for my week: I didn’t wind up doing the workout I had planned for Tuesday, and due to this and some other factors I opted to bail on the race I had signed up for on Saturday. I did substitute this with a workout I felt pretty good about, so my week of training ended on a positive note. Another high point of the week was spending some time with my running coach, who I have not been training with for the past 6 months. We had a really good conversation, talked about my training among other things, and will likely start working together again soon. I’ve learned some important things training on my own for this block of time, but I’ve missed training with him and I am really looking forward to having the benefit of his expertise again.

Shalane was so kind and paused her workout to indulge a starstruck fan (me) with a photo and a brief chat.

AND I met Shalane Flanagan! She was in town for the Runner’s World festival in Newton, MA and was working out on the track near my house. I had a chance to briefly chat and take a selfie with her. What a thrill!

Now on to my training log:

Monday: Started off on the easy run I had planned for today, but my left foot and ankle just didn’t feel up to it. Turned for home and instead did 30 minutes on my elliptical, then a core routine and a hip mobility routine.

Saturday: Fartlek. Warm-up: 2 miles easy, stretch. 2*buttkicks, heel kicks, high knees, long skips. 2*strides. Workout: 4*(3 min easy-moderate, 2 min moderate). It was supposed to all be continuous but I didn’t have the stamina for it and had to take a 5 minute walk/jog break between sets 2 and 3. Cool-down: 2 miles easy, core routine, hip mobility routine.

I had a minor setback at the beginning of this week with some left foot soreness, but I was conservative with it and got through it quickly. This week I also ran my first double-digit long run since June 2012: a hilly 10-miler. I can’t say it felt easy – I was pretty wiped out afterwards – but I recovered well and feel happy to have tackled that hurdle at last.

Monday: Left foot feeling sore. Did a short walk-run on the treadmill just to get the blood flowing there, then worked on it a bit. Core and hip mobility routines.

This week I have been gearing up to launch my business, Moms Run Strong: Cross-Training and Injury Prevention for Athletic Moms (shameless promotion: www.momsrunstrong.com). I took and passed my National Academy of Sports Medicine Personal Trainer certification exam, and lined up a few clients. Ok, so all of them so far are my friends (some of whom I’ve recruited as Salty Running readers), and at least for the first month until I streamline things I’m not charging any money for my services….but you have to start somewhere! This summer I’ll be working on a number of other certifications, and I’m really excited to continue my education while starting to train other athletic moms who want to move well and perform well in their chosen sport.

From the standpoint of my training, things are really starting to come along with the shoulder and t-spine mobility program I’m working on with my strength coach and my running week went well. Here it is:

I was fascinated by how women in Haiti are able to carry large, heavy loads on their heads, often without any support from their hands, while also walking barefoot!

This week’s training log includes some details of my recent trip to Haiti – not running-related at all but I’m including them because they are related to issues confronting women all over the world. The purpose of the trip was to learn about and interact with grassroots human rights organizations in Haiti trying to effect change for women and children in this turbulent, troubled country. I went with a small group of women, all mothers and professional women, and the trip was organized through the American Jewish World Service, a humanitarian organization based in New York. It was a difficult trip, to be honest, and I have not fully processed all that I saw and experienced. But I returned home with a newfound appreciation for all the small things I take for granted. Case in point: a few hours after I arrived home on Wednesday, I went for a run outside in the beautiful network of parks in my neighborhood. I felt the warm sun on my shoulders, the wind blowing my ponytail, and mild burn in my lungs and legs….and felt a profound gratitude for the freedom to move through the world by my own power and volition.

So here is my log from the last two weeks, the mundane details of training juxtaposed against a few extraordinary details of my short but very powerful journey:

Jacmel is a seaside town where many artists display their work along this newly constructed beachfront walkway

Saturday: Travel day to Port-au-Prince, Haiti by plane, then travel by bus to seaside town of Jacmel. A very long day of doing nothing but sitting!

Sunday: A difficult day and a true exercise in mental strength. We met with four organizations, and all representatives were desperate to tell us of their plight. The poverty and human rights violations that are the norm in Haiti are almost unimaginable, and there is very little infrastructure to address these grievances.

Tet Kole: a peasant-led organization and partner of ICKL which helps farmers, women and youth learn self-advocacy and leadership skills

Beyond Borders: focuses on ending violence against women, guaranteeing universal access to education, and ending child slavery, among many other issues

Fanm Deside: A women’s rights organization headquartered in a domestic violence shelter that provides aid/support to victims of sexual assault and other violent crimes, and also provides them with advocacy and vocational skills.

Week Ending 5.11.14

Millions of dollars were spent to make these hillside shanty towns look visually pleasing, at the expense of clean water and improved sanitation.

Monday: Travel to Leogan to meet with MUDHA, an organization founded to provide vocational and leadership training for women and youth. This was an incredibly meaningful interaction, as we had a candid exchange and compared experiences with a group of women our age with children of similar ages to our children. The conversation encompassed everything from religion and homosexuality to practical details of who picks our kids up from school! My favorite meeting of the trip. Afterwards, we traveled back to Port-au-Prince. I did get in a short run in the evening before dinner since our hotel in Port-au-Prince had a small gym with two treadmills; I originally asked our guide about running outside but he strongly discouraged it (not a surprise). Boy did I need a run to help digest everything I had experienced over the past two days – I felt so much better afterwards!

Tuesday: Another quick treadmill run before breakfast. Then, meeting with the executive secretary of POHDH, the Haitian equivalent of Legal Aid, in downtown Port-au-Prince, followed by transfer to the airport and the journey back home! A long flight from Port-au-Prince to JFK Airport, NYC.

Wednesday: Early morning flight back to Boston – arrived at home just in time to give my kids huge hugs and kisses before they left for school. Then, easy run. 3 miles easy, core work, hip mobility routine.

Two events in my running world happened this week: the Boston Marathon and a new training partnership I am very excited about.

First, THE MARATHON! It was a glorious day in Boston and the positive energy all around town was palpable. My husband, kids and I got to our viewing point at Mile 23 just in time to see the elite women go by, and shortly thereafter the elite men. I was totally ecstatic to see Meb floating down Beacon St. all on his own, looking strong, graceful and composed. Incredible! I did catch sight of Wasabi’s back as she sped by, though unfortunately missed Vanilla and Clove. Cinnamon and I waved to each other from across the barricades along Beacon, our plans to meet up on the course thwarted by the increased security of this year’s race. It was a long day of spectating – and I must be the worst spotter ever because I picked out almost no one I had set out to see – but nonetheless it was very exhilarating to cheer the efforts of the amazing group of runners assembled, friends and strangers alike.

Now on to the other notable event: on Thursday I started working with a coach/movement therapist at a nationally-renowned strength and conditioning gym, which happens to be located less than 30-minutes drive from me. And so begins the next stage of my quest to achieve more authentic movement, both to improve my own running and to help educate and take care of the athletes I will work with going forward. My new coach screened me with the FMS and made some other assessments, and then we got started on my corrective program. For now, the major focus will be on improving my thoracic spine and shoulder mobility, as well as re-setting my pelvis. I learned some Postural Restoration Institute (PRI) breathing drills, some t-spine mobility drills, and primal rolling patterns, which I’ve been practicing on my own at home since Thursday. I’ll keep you all posted as to how it goes!

As for training this week, it was a solid week without any major hiccups:

Well, this week the rust was busted – first race in more than 2 years is in the books! I ran the Race Against Extinction 5K on Saturday and it went well. It was a beautiful day, the Earth Day vibe was festive, and lining up at the start I was so grateful to be healthy and able to run in a race the outcome was almost inconsequential. I suspected I was in sub-22:00 shape but since I was running without a watch and only by effort, I resolved not to be disappointed whatever the time. Though the advice from my fellow Salties was to go balls-to-the-wall, especially since this race was meant to be a fitness test on which to base my race-pace work for the season, I can’t say I truly did that. Instead, I went out in a strong but manageable pace and held it until the last quarter mile or so, when I kicked hard. I came in at 21:54, a new PR for me and right around where I felt I should be based on the past few months of foundational work. An added bonus was a 2nd place finish (one of the benefits of competing in a small, local race!), and the thrill of having my name announced during the acknowledgements at the end of the race. All in all, a great experience and a promising start to the spring/summer racing season!

April in Boston! Zeal for the Boston Marathon is sweeping through the area, and I am getting so excited to cheer on all my friends who are running this year. I always camp out on Beacon St. around Mile 23 – first to catch sight of the elites as they go by, and then (an hour or more later) to see the folks I know and show them my support. This year with the approach of the Boston Marathon also comes my first race of the season: The Race Against Extinction 5K on April 19th! It will be my first race in more than 2 years, and I am eager to run it but also full of nerves as I truly have no idea how it will go. I don’t have a specific time goal in mind, but I do want to use it to gauge my fitness after a winter of general strength and foundational work. Since I no longer have a coach to tell me what to do in these kinds of situations, I polled my fellow Salty bloggers to get their thoughts about how I should approach it. The nearly unanimous opinion was this: run as strong as possible for as long as possible right from the start, even if it means crashing and burning by the end. The thought of this is scary for someone like me who is used to running longer races, where you live and die by the negative split. But, since I have nothing to lose, I’m going to go for it!

Thursday: What was planned: 6 min easy, form/power drills, 4*100m strides, 3 miles easy with last 4 min progressive, 4*10 sec hill sprints, core work, hip girdle work. What actually went down: during the first of the 100m strides I felt pain/pulling at the top of my L quad. I stopped right away and palpated and was able to feel a knot in the region of rectus femoris, so I worked on it with some self-myofascial release and it did start to ease up a bit. Then, I jogged a flat, easy couple miles in the park next to the track to see if I could run it out, but I still felt some mild discomfort so I decided to take it in and call it a day.

Friday: I got in to see my chiropractor this morning and had ART to my L quad (which was already feeling better anyway) and both hip girdles. Afterwards, did 3 miles easy outside and some light core and hip mobility work and all felt well.

I had a good week of training this week. I started (gingerly) adding some short hill sprints to the end of some of my runs, a la Brad Hudson, and was glad that my body seemed to respond well to these. Currently, my main hurdle is I am finding I have a lot of anxiety about doing “long” runs, which for me right now are runs in the 7-8 mile range. Over the past couple years I’ve really struggled with overuse injuries, which historically have popped up in the context of longer runs, so I’ve grown a little fearful of them – sad, as they used to be my favorite part of training. I really have to psych myself up to get out there and do them, and even once I’m going, I have to frequently reassure myself that I’m fine, that everything feels strong and intact, and that if something starts to bother me I will be able to judge things correctly and stop if I need to. I did come through this week’s 7-miler without any problems, so hopefully I’ll get a few more 7-8 milers under my belt in the coming weeks and will start to feel more confident I can do runs of this distance without hurting myself.